Kiss and Make Up Day

It’s a day to mend broken relationships.  Originally, I thought it was KISS makeup day.

It is Gene Simmons birthday.

Today is also National Secondhand Wardrobe Day, a time to encourage shrift store donations.  Here in Las Cruces there are many shops that would happily accept those items that have been hanging in your closet, unused, for years.  Click here for addresses: http://www.magicyellow.com/category/Thrift_Shops/Las_Cruces_NM.html

The 101 number one song of the day transformed a $35 a week babysitter into an international singing star and choreographer – at least for a short time anyway.  Songwriters and husband wife team, Gerry Goffen and Carole King had just started a family and asked some of the various singers they worked with if they knew anybody who could care for their newborn daughter. They hired Eva Narcissus Boyd who also had a talent for singing and it turned out dancing. The couple had just written a new song and had their new babysitter cut the demo which was pitched to Dee Dee Sharp who had just scored with “Mashed Potato Time” She took a pass as did several others so label owner Don Kirshner decided to release the demo as the single. One sticking point – it was a “dance” song but no such dance existed. So the singer turned into a choreographer and made it up as she went. The song became an international hit and on August 25, 1962 it hit number one in the U.S. It was a heck ride, but a short one. The level of success was never quite duplicated by Little Eva (Locomotion)

---12 years later it was recorded by Grand Funk and their single also went to number one making it one of only six songs to go to number one by different artists.

Other stuff:

According to the hotel chain Traveloge, one in four grown men travels with a stuffed animal. They know because they collect the left animals and return them to their owners. Some of the men say they’re gifts from their wives and girlfriends…and they take them along to remind them of their sweeties.

-Hey, any excuse you need to come up with…is okay by us.

The pest control company Terminix has listed the top cities for bed bug infestations. These are the cities where they’re getting the most calls. New York, Philadelphia and Detroit top the list…but Ohio has three cities in the top ten – Cincinnati #4, Columbus #7 and Dayton #8.  Las Cruces appears does not appear on the list, so for recognition purposes -

And bed bugs aren’t the only problem sweeping the country. Three alligators are being hunted in northern cities this week. An alligator has been sighted in the Chicago River. Another was seen walking across a street in Massachusetts…and yet another in New York City. Animal experts called to corral the critters say they’re probably all escaped pets.

-Yeah – and suddenly being bitten by a teeny bug doesn’t seem that bad.

And finally: A 35-year old Polish man living in Germany went to the doctor to have him look at a cyst growing on the back of his head. It wasn’t a cyst. It was a .22-caliber bullet stuck in the back of his skull. He said he may have been shot in the head on New Year’s Eve in either 2004 or 2005, he’s not sure which – he said he was too drunk. Apparently the bullet lodged in his skull and his skin grew over the wound.

-Let me go ahead and say proudly…I have never been that drunk.